Nuclear Summer Party 2016

​Nuclear Races today hosted an event with no running, but plenty of obstacles including their infamous Deathslide and Ziplines. The Nuclear Summer Party was great fun. You could go on the obstacles they had out as much or as little as you wanted to. This was brilliant from a filming perspective in order to get multiple shots and fantastic as a participant as it gave you a chance to hone your technique and get more daring with your approaches, such as Superman-ing it off the Deathslide!

Some guys from Southend Parkour came down to give a talk on their approach and philosophy to training and fitness. It was interesting even though some things contradict what others teach. For example they shot down the leg technique to get over a wall which I often use. Their reasoning is that "technique can only get you so far." I'm sure I've heard that being said the other way around too! Although I see their point in that we shouldn't use a technique in place of reason to get stronger. Whilst I have already been exploring other ways to scale a wall and I want to be able to muscle up, I will still be using the faithful leg technique for the walls if I'm going to save my strength for some of those more demanding upper body obstacles during a race. Race smart!
 
Got to say the parkour guys really do show us up when it comes to obstacle flair! 

The Nuclear Summer Party was a fun day out and very good value at £22. It was a real shame however that the 'Gorilla bars,' were not accessible even though they advertised it. My friends I went with today are not fans of running or mud, so it was great to spend the time with them, as they definitely won’t be joining me on future Nuclear Races.
 
For me I prefer the actual obstacle races as there’s something satisfying and purposeful about getting from A to B through a much bigger variety of challenges. I think the running gives you a boost of adrenaline and makes tacking the obstacles a lot more fun. I realised this when I was walking down the path to the zipline, it just all seemed to make more sense when I started running!